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Brendan Hay (Harvey Street Kids, Dawn of the Croods) joins Jordan and Jesse for a discussion of the european soccer player villain in Cliffhanger who kicks people off the mountain, Brendan's desire to expand the roster of his new Netflix show based on Harvey Street characters to Casper, Richie Rich, and ultimately Baby Huey, and Jesse's deconstruction of the song Word Up by Cameo and how it cannot be about anything but a disfigured penis. Plus, Jordan asks an important question: is the culture more horny for Santa than usual this year? Show notes

Our guest Micky Dolenz starred in the hit 1960's TV show "The Monkees." It was essentially a Hollywood version of The Beatles' rock-n-roll comedy "A Hard Day's Night." Micky played the drummer and one of the singers alongside Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, and the late Davy Jones. The gang played four lovable goofs trying to make it as a band, bumming around Los Angeles, solving mysteries, and staying in haunted houses.

And, this probably isn't news to you, but: The Monkees weren't a band before the show started. They each auditioned for parts in the show, and most of them were mainly actors. Nevertheless, they had some legendary all-time hits like "Last Train To Clarksville," "Daydream Believer," and "I'm a Believer."

The band actually outlasted the show itself and just this year they recorded and released their 13th studio album Christmas Party. It's a holiday record chock full of standards, covers, and originals. It's also got contributions from Rivers Cuomo, Peter Buck and more.

Micky tells Jesse about a time when he was spotted in a mall by screaming fans, and what John Lennon really thought about The Monkees.

Sy Smith is a brilliant singer, songwriter, and producer that lives here in Los Angeles. She's been recording soul records for over a decade now and has collaborated with folks like Kamasi Washington and Thundercat. She's also an incredibly talented backup singer for greats like Sheila E., Chaka Khan, Usher, and Whitney Houston.

Jason Mitchell on his new film 'Tyrel' and portraying Eazy-E in Straight Outta Compton

First up: Jason Mitchell! We can't wait to share this conversation with you – he's an up and coming actor with a lot of great stories to tell. He's magnetic, and as you'll hear in our interview he's extremely charming.

Recently, he's been in a lot of acclaimed movies and television shows. In Netflix's "Mudbound" he played a World War II veteran who returns to rural Mississippi. Or perhaps you've seen him on Lena Waithe's Showtime series "The Chi," he starred as Brandon. He's probably best known for his breakthrough role: 2015's "Straight Outta Compton." He sort of stole every scene he was in as Eazy-E.

His latest film "Tyrel," is out now. In it, Jason stars as Tyler: a young guy who lives with his girlfriend in New York. Deciding he wants to get out of the city for the while, he takes a trip with a handful of guys his age. He rides out to Catskills for a long weekend in a cabin.

The plot really thickens when you learn that the guys in the cabin are all friends of friends. He doesn't really know any of them. And the other thing: Tyler's black, while everyone else on the trip is white. It's an awkward and weirdly plausible look at race and masculinity and how people react when they have to deal with those topics head on.

Jason will talk about how this film helped create a friendship with co-star Michael Cera. He'll also discuss his road to stardom: he didn't get his first role until he was 24. And it wasn't an easy road – he was raised in a tough part of New Orleans, his home was devastated by Katrina, and he had run-ins with the law when he was younger. Plus, as a former professional oyster shucker he'll give us some tips for preparing the culinary delicacy.

Karina Longworth on her new book: 'Seduction
Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood'

The Golden Age of Hollywood was a fascinating time – this was the era of James Dean, Orson Welles and "Gone With The Wind." Look up the topic and you'll find hundreds of books, movies, TV shows, and even bus tours. Sometimes those depictions will get swept up in the glitz and glamor. Other times it's quite the opposite: dark, morose, and gritty.

It's as sordid and cutthroat as you might imagine. The book talks about Hughes' role in Hollywood back then. The dozens of movies he financed, the few he wrote and directed. The weird, abusive system he created to recruit and develop young actresses – and the way he manipulated them. Longworth's book is beautifully written, and meticulously researched. She talks about the impact and damage done by Hughes and the people whose lives he affected forever.

Finally for The Outshot, Jesse describes the whimsical world of Katamari Damacy – a video game that will fill you with wonder. A remastered version of the game has just been released. It's the perfect time to reflect on the simple joys of this funky little game.

This week, we're doing something a little different. We're looking back on the life of one of Jesse's favorite Bullseye guests ever: Ricky Jay, who died last month at 72.

Ricky Jay was one of the first magicians to play comedy and rock clubs in the 60s. He became one of the most adept illusionists in the world and one of the greatest sleight of hand performers who ever lived. He's in the Guinness Book of World Records for his card tricks and authored a bunch of books on the history of magic.

Ricky was an actor, too, who appeared in a bunch of movies like "Boogie Nights" and "Tomorrow Never Dies." He had a pretty big role on "Deadwood" and narrated PT Anderson's "Magnolia." David Mamet directed his one-man shows.

On this episode, you'll hear from several different interviews I did with Ricky over the years. We talked about his acting, his research into the history of magic, even the nature of truth itself.

First, we'll share our conversation with him in 2005. Ricky Jay talked with Jesse on the phone about his collection of handbills and flyers from performances dating back all the way to the 17th Century.

Ten years would pass before he was a guest on Bullseye again. It was early 2015 and he was the subject of an episode of American Masters, the PBS series. He was the first magician to ever get profiled on the show. It's available to stream online. You should absolutely check it out.

The last time Ricky Jay was on the show was in 2016. He'd just written a book about Matthias Buchinger. Buchinger was an artist and calligrapher. He was born without hands or feet and was only 29 inches tall. He called the book "Matthias Buchinger: The Greatest German Living."
It's out of print but if you can find a copy, you should pick it up.

[R] This week, we'll revisit our conversation with comedian Billy Eichner. He's probably best known for roaming the streets of New York with a camera crew, roping unsuspecting pedestrians into playing his game show, "Billy on the Street." While Cash Cab paved the way for street-ambush game shows, Eichner's approach has a unique twist.

The correct answers are often subjective (as in the game "Dead or Boring") and his game show persona is hyper-energetic and over-the-top. He's ready to swoon with a contestant who shares his love of Meryl Streep, or yell and stalk angrily away from a contestant who doesn't.

Eichner tells us about his screaming encounters with Madonna, the influence of Pee-wee Herman on his on-screen persona, and the role that game show laws played in the development of his show. (It turns out that "game show compliance lawyer" is a real job.)

New episodes of "Billy on the Street" are available online on Funny or Die. You can also see him on "American Horror Story," "Difficult People," and so much more.

Photo: Jesse Thorn

Ali Wong talks marriage and money and what it’s like performing through her pregnancy

There are many comedians who use their family life as inspiration for their comedy, but Ali Wong took it a step further when she recorded the 2016 comedy special "Baby Cobra" while seven and a half months pregnant.

Wong’s comedy is rooted in her willingness to be incredibly frank and honest about her personal life including her relationships, her Asian heritage and the challenges of pregnancy while working as a writer on the hit television show, "Fresh Off the Boat."

When Ali Wong joined Jesse a couple years ago she talked about being a breadwinner, performing while pregnant and how it feels to talk about painful and personal things like miscarriage in front of a comedy audience.

Ali Wong has another new comedy special: "Hard Knock Wife." She did the entire special pregnant, again. It's available to stream now on Netflix.

Tim Blake Nelson on Working With The Coen Brothers and The Jewish Enclave of His Youth in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tim Blake Nelson is kind of a character actor. He's from Tulsa, and has a little bit of an accent to prove it. He plays up that accent in a lot of his roles: maybe he'll play a desert-dwelling outsider, a corporate type from Texas who wears boots, or a Faulkner character. He's also played unforgettable parts in some great movies, like Delmar O'Donnell in O' Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coen Brothers classic.

Now, he's starring in another Coen Brothers movie - it's called The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which just debuted on Netflix. The film is made up of six vignettes. Each is a story about the old west told in archetypes: the bounty hunter, the wagon settler, the big goofy gold miner with a big goofy beard and a burro at his side. Tim plays the title character: Buster Scruggs, the star and subject of the first vignette. He's a handsome, kind of flamboyantly dressed singing cowboy with a revolver in his holster and a guitar around his back - kind of a Gene Autry type and he's got a way with words.

Tim talks to Jesse about the career path he would have taken had he not become an actor and the time he got play a villain in a live action version of Scooby Doo - and how he would have gotten away with it, too.

Mary Randolph Carter, or Carter, as she's known, has worked high up at fashion house Ralph Lauren for decades. She's currently the creative director. That's her day job.

In her free time, she collects stuff. She calls it junk. And she's got a lot of junk.

In her New York apartment, her walls are filled with old pictures. There are books stacked under desks, along the walls, sometimes out in the open. If you're sitting on her sofa with a drink, your best bet is to probably hold onto it: more often than not, her coffee table, surely an antique, is covered in vases, little sculptures, and more books. Always more books.

Does her place look busy? Yeah, a little. But it doesn't look cluttered. It's deliberate. It's thoughtful. Welcoming. Everything has a story.

Maura Tierney on her career and her starring role in the new film 'Beautiful Boy'

Maura Tierney is probably best known for her time on the hit drama "ER." She played Abby Lockhart. Her character was introverted, sarcastic and a bit self-destructive, but when it came to her patients she always showed warmth and compassion. Her role was complex and nuanced, which is uncommon for a soap opera. She's currently on the Showtime series "The Affair."

She also starred on "Newsradio" as Lisa, the ambitious reporter and producer. Lisa was the kind of person who kept a tight schedule and always had her eyes on her life-plan. She was also the kind of person who could perform complex mathematical calculations in her head. Her character was incredibly intelligent, kind of an overachiever and at times very funny.

She's currently starring in an acclaimed drama: "Beautiful Boy," which just hit theaters. It's a story about the difficult and frustrating nature of addiction. It stars Timothée Chalamet as Nic, a college age kid struggling with a drug habit. Maura plays Karen, Nic's step mom. "Beautiful Boy" is as unique as it is realistic: addiction is a complicated thing. It brings some people closer together, drives others away, it has ups and downs.

This week, we'll chat about these roles and look at the rest of her career, which spans several decades. Plus, she'll explain why she starred alongside Jerry Orbach in the 1991 film "Dead Women in Lingerie." We'll play a clip from the movie, and you can bet she shrieked in horror that we were able to dig that up.

Michael Kupperman is a cartoonist, writer, and he's one of our favorites at Bullseye. His comics have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Believer Magazine. A lot of his stuff is surreal, and a little silly. For his latest book he gets serious and very personal. In "All The Answers" he explores his father's time as a world famous TV Quiz Kid.

Back in the 40s and 50s, when people were still figuring out how television worked, there were "quiz shows." TV programs where hosts would ask contestants trivia questions, and if they kept answering right, they'd stay on the show. Michael's dad; Joel Kupperman, managed to stay on for almost a decade. And it all happened when he was a kid.

When he grew up, Joel pretty much left TV. And he didn't talk about it much, not even with his family. And when he did, it wasn't usually positive. Michael got the sense that this was a pretty dark chapter in his Dad's life. So Michael did some of his own research. He went through old tapes, talked to family members. It's a fascinating portrait of his father, and a really moving read.

His father never talked much about his childhood. So Michael learned a lot of surprising things about his father later on in life on his own. He'll describe what it was like to discover that his father had once performed with the Marx Brothers. Plus, he'll explain why he had an easy time drawing his father in the book, but struggled to draw himself.

Saxophonist Kamasi Washington is one of the most talented jazz musicians around. He's collaborated with Thundercat, Ryan Adams, Flying Lotus, Run the Jewels - that's just naming a handful. On Kendrick Lamar's classic "To Pimp A Butterfly," you can hear his saxophone and arranging work, too.

To define Kamasi Washington by the people he's collaborated with, however, would be doing him a disservice. He's recorded about half a dozen solo records. He's a dynamic, thrilling composer and bandleader.

If you love the work of Alice Coltrane or Pharoah Sanders, you'll hear something familiar in Kamasi's music. Like them, Kamasi writes songs from a transcendent, spiritual place. It's strange and lush. There's usually a melody that hypnotizes you. The songs run long, but just like the free jazz greats, you'll lose yourself in them.

Kamasi was born in the 80s, raised in Los Angeles, and he grew up listening to jazz classics, but also N.W.A., Marvin Gaye, and Snoop. The music he makes is eclectic. It's why his albums have ended up on so many critics' top 10 lists, and it's also why those same critics often ask whether Kamasi Washington is the one to make jazz a young person's game again.

Simon Rich is one of Jesse's favorite comedy writers. He started young: first as editor of the Harvard Lampoon, then, at just 23, Simon was hired as a writer on SNL. He's also written for Pixar, The New Yorker, and is the author of seven books. He created the FXX TV series Man Seeking Woman and just had another pilot picked up by ABC.

Simon hasn't even turned 35 yet.

Earlier this year he wrote a book called Hits & Misses. It's a collection of short stories - some of his funniest work to date. This week, he reads us a story called "New Client."

First up: Actor Steven Yeun joins us to talk about what he's been up to since his breakthrough performance in the "The Walking Dead" the series.

For seven seasons, Steven played Glenn Rhee on "The Walking Dead." In this post-apocalyptic world where zombies roam the world Glenn's character was always quick to think strategically on his feet. Despite being kind of a loner in the series Glenn was an excellent leader in times of stress. He became one of the series' most beloved characters, and if we're being frank – he was quite a badass. He'll discuss what it was like when he first got that gig and what it was like to deal with people immersed in "Walking Dead" fandom.

Steven's work can also be seen in critically acclaimed films like "Sorry To Bother You" and "Okja." His new movie, "Burning," is the first Korean language film he's performed in. It's South Korea's submission for the Academy Awards. He'll explain why it was so intimidating performing in Korean.

As a kid Steven was pretty active at his local Korean American church. He was born in Seoul, South Korea and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He says he wasn't the coolest kid on the block but that didn't stop him from trying to assimilate. Something he says he's kind of embarrassed about now. He reflects on his childhood, and explains why trying to fit in was one of the most difficult acting gigs of his life.

The couple behind the podcast Sawbones on their new book about misguided medicine

There's something kind of fascinating and morbid about medical history, something unique to that genre. If you look into the history of medicine, one thing will become very clear, very quickly: for the longest time, we had no idea how our own bodies work. Sawbones is a podcast that airs on right here Maximum Fun. It's a show about all the gruesome, gross and sometimes very funny stuff we did to our bodies in the name of health and medicine.

It's hosted by Dr. Sydnee McElroy, a physician and medical history buff, and her husband Justin McElroy. And now: Sawbones is a book, too! It's called "The Sawbones Book: The Hilarious, Horrifying Road to Modern Medicine." It's beautifully illustrated by Teylor Smirl. It's available for purchase now.

Heads up: this is a conversation about medical history, so we'll be talking about blood, guts, injuries and other potentially squeamish stuff. If you're sensitive to that, we thought we'd let you know.

Eric Idle is a comedy pioneer and a real-life Monty Python! He co-created and starred in the TV show, along with hit movies like "The Meaning of Life," "The Holy Grail," and "Life of Brian." He also co-founded The Rutles, the Beatles parody band, and wrote the smash hit Broadway musical "Spamalot."

In our conversation, Eric shares some hilarious anecdotes about the comics and rock stars he worked with, insight into the Python creative process, and how he looks back on Monty Python's legacy today.

Blood Orange's Dev Hynes on Producing for Hit Makers and His Teenage Years as a Metal Head

Easily one of the most interesting musicians around today, Devonté "Dev" Hynes is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. He's worked on hits for folks like Carly Rae Jepsen, A$AP Rocky, Kylie Minogue, and the Chemical Brothers just to name a handful. He also produced the breakout Solange Knowles hit "True."

Dev's also been making music of his own for over ten years now. First under the name Lightspeed Champion and then, starting in 2011 as Blood Orange. His sound isn't easy to define. It changes from album to album, even from song to song. You'll hear a little bit of Prince, maybe Sade every now and then. It's music made to evoke feelings of nostalgia, melancholy, love.

In search of good weather and cheap rent, photographer Janet Delaney moved to the Mission District in San Francisco in the '80s. It's the stage where she shot the images in her new book "Public Matters." To Delaney, to live comfortably in a city is to feel at home with strangers and you can feel that in her pictures.

Susan Orlean is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her work has also appeared in Vogue, Esquire and on This American Life. She's the author of eight books, covering topics like New England and Rin Tin Tin. Her first book, "Saturday Night," used narrative journalism to paint a portrait of how Saturday night in America is lived. She's probably best known for "The Orchid Thief." That book ended up being the basis of the Academy Award nominated film "Adaptation," starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep.

She now lives here in Los Angeles. Being an author and a reader, she's visited the beautiful, historic central library in downtown Los Angeles dozens of times. Her latest book "The Library Book" is about that library and its history.

It wasn't until she took a tour of the library that she was inspired to write this book. The tour guide opened a book and said some of them still smelled like smoke. A bit perplexed she probed and asked more about the smell. This is how she learned of devastating fire that almost demolished the building in 1986. She always hoped someone would tell this story, and unknowingly years later she would be the one to tell it. The book is also also kind of a paean to libraries everywhere – what they mean to her, and why every library is a vital institution.

We're big fans of Susan Orlean at Maximum Fun. A few years ago she gave a talk at Max Fun Con called: "Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary." You can check out that talk here.

Photo: Valery Hache / AFP / Getty Images

Jazz vocalist Gregory Porter on his new album 'Nat King Cole and Me'

Gregory Porter is a Grammy Award winning jazz vocalist. The route he took to get there is really unique. He was a offensive lineman at San Diego State. Then, during his junior year, an injury ended his football career. During that time he could sing, but he wasn't a singer. That changed when his mom, literally from her deathbed, told him to start singing.

In 2010, he moved to New York with his brother and recorded his debut record "Water." Whereas most young jazz singers start their careers recording standards, Porter recorded an album of mostly originals.

Now, almost a decade later, he's laid down an new album with jazz standards. "Nat King Cole and Me" pays tribute to one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. It's music he grew up on. Porter spent a lot of time researching the music of Nat King Cole - his records, books, and documentaries. He'll tell us what made Cole one of the most unique singers of the civil rights era of the 1950's. He'll also tell us what it was like to grow up in Bakersfield, California and how that's influenced his lyrics.

The covers are great, but if you want to hear some more of his original work, check out his 2016 album: "Take Me to the Alley" – the album was inspired by his mother's teachings as a street minister and it's one of our favorites.

The Outshot: Hot Dog Timmy

Jesse explains why great things can come of simple premises and simple situations. Like in this sketch from "The Whitest Kids You Know."